Smart Telescope Planner vs MessierMate

BigSky Planner helps smart telescope users prepare an observing night before they head outside. Save your observing sites, set up your smart telescope, filter a bundled target catalog, and build a timed plan for the night. Target cards show magnitude, object type, first view time, time in view, azimuth and altitude. Details adds capture guidance for your default telescope, with Min, Opt and Best integration times and filter-aware notes. Key features - Save and reuse observing sites, and mark a default - Smart telescope profiles with altitude, timing and Equatorial Mode limits for each model - Filter targets by catalog, magnitude, object type, altitude and azimuth, with exact catalog-number search - Planets, the Moon and comets - One target card per object, with its common name - Build Plan places every selected target across its Clear Sky, so the times overlap. Balance Plan and Use Priority set the time shares - An alert when a capture is shorter than 30 minutes, with a longer seat or a replacement to choose from - Weather from NOAA in the United States and MET Norway elsewhere, with no account or key. Open-Meteo works with your own key. - Save, reopen, print and share plans - Back up on iPhone or iPad and restore on a Mac or Windows PC, or the other way around - Text follows your iPhone or iPad text size - Light and dark appearance, an illustrated Help guide and a full PDF manual Free download with a 20-day free trial BigSky Planner is free to download and includes a free 20-day trial. After the trial, Full Access is a one-time in-app purchase: no subscription and no automatic charge. Your saved sites and plans are kept. If you bought the app before it became free, you keep Full Access with no additional purchase. Purchase questions: support@bigskyastro.com. Your data stays on your device. No account is required.

110 deep-sky objects. See which ones are above your horizon right now, sorted by urgency so you never miss one before it sets. MessierMate is the complete companion for deep-sky observing, and it's completely free. No ads. No in-app purchases. Ever. Whether you're under the stars for the first time or chasing the Messier Marathon, the app tells you exactly what's visible from your location right now, helps you plan future nights, and keeps a log of every session. TONIGHT Open the app and instantly see which of the 110 Messier objects are above your horizon, sorted by urgency so you never miss a galaxy that's about to set. Each card shows altitude, compass direction, time until it sets, and an altitude arc so you know exactly when to look. Filter by object type (galaxies, nebulae, star clusters) and minimum altitude, and switch between three card layouts to match your observing style. PLAN Tap any night on the monthly calendar and see dusk time, moon phase, moonrise, and a count of how many objects are visible. Browse your targets in a list or on a timeline that shows when each object rises, peaks, and sets. Star objects to build a target list for the night. The app automatically detects Messier Marathon nights and flags them on the calendar. LOG Record every session with the date, location, duration, and which objects you observed. Add notes and photos to individual objects. Share a session with a friend via a short share code. No account needed on their end to view it. YOUR SKY, YOUR PRIVACY Your GPS coordinates never leave your device. Only your site name and Bortle class are synced to the cloud, never your exact coordinates. There are no ads and no analytics trackers. Guest mode is fully functional: the app works completely offline without an account. BUILT FOR DARK SITES A dark theme and a Red Night mode protect your night vision. The interface is designed to be usable by feel, with minimal taps needed to log an observation while you're at the eyepiece. WHAT'S INSIDE - All 110 Messier objects with real-time altitude and azimuth calculations - Tonight view ranked by urgency, objects setting soonest appear first - Monthly planning calendar with moon phase and object counts - Rising, peaking, and setting timeline for any night - Automatic Messier Marathon opportunity detection - Session log with notes, photos, and shareable codes - Equipment manager for telescopes, eyepieces, filters, and cameras - Bortle scale support for accurate sky darkness settings - Red Night mode for dark site use - Works offline, no internet connection required for sky calculations - Free, with no ads and no in-app purchases Whether you're hunting your first galaxy or completing the catalog for the tenth time, MessierMate keeps you focused on what matters: the sky.